The invention relates to a device for anchoring a ligament to an osseous structure for ligamentoplasty
Occasionally there is a rupture of the connection between the end of a ligament and the bone to which it was initially attached.
Since the ligament cannot be reattached naturally, anchoring devices are used to fasten to the osseous structure, and to which the ligament is attached.
An anchoring device of this type conventionally comprises a slender body, wherein one end has a means for fastening to an osseous structure and wherein the other end has a loop for at least indirectly attaching the ligament to it.
There is, for example, a known anchoring device FR-A-2.731. 610 forming a harpoon comprising a revolving cylindrical body, cut into the periphery of which are fins whose free ends extend progressively outward from the aforementioned body in order to anchor into the osseous structure.
As traction is exerted on the head of the anchoring device, the free ends of these fins penetrate into the osseous structure.
The head of this device is provided with a recess for at least indirectly attaching the ligament.
This device is inserted by force into a hole drilled into the bone, so that the fins projecting outward from the longitudinal axis prevent any retraction of the device by penetrating into the wall of the hole.
The tensile strength of these anchoring devices is nevertheless relatively weak.
In a different medical field that involves the reduction of fractures, there is a known device (FR-A-2.721.818 or FR-A-2.737.104) having the shape of a grapple, ie., having as fastening means two branches bent back 180xc2x0 (one hundred eighty degrees) relative to the longitudinal axis of the body, and whose free ends are sharp in order to penetrate into the bone, and particularly into the cortical bone.
Once in place, these devices are wedged so as to exert a traction on the two parts of the bone, bringing the two parts closer together.
These devices cannot be used in any way in ligamentoplasty.
One of the objects of the invention is to obtain a device for ligamentoplasty that specifically eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks.
To this end the subject of the invention is an anchoring device of the above-mentioned type comprising a slender body, wherein one end has a means for fastening to an osseous structure and wherein the other end has a loop for at least indirectly attaching the ligament to it, this device being characterized in that the fastening means comprises at least two hooks extending in divergent directions and secant to the longitudinal axis of the body of the device, and each book is carried by the end of a slender branch, and the slender branches constituting the body of the device progressively diverge from one another beginning at the loop with which they are associated.